The James Posey signing surprised me for a few reasons, but the main one has nothing to do with Posey. First off, let it be known that Posey hasn't really been that good the last few years. His PER was all of 12.75 last year, which was up from his 9.90 PER in '05-'06. So that's nothing to be singing praises of. I agree with Posey's agent that the Heat certainly did not utilize him well on the offensive end, but his problems seemed to be more than just systematic. Nonetheless, the main thing Posey brings is strong defense, and that is something the C's most definitely can use.
It needs to be mentioned that in '03-'04 Hubie Brown lit a fire under Posey and he was arguably the best player on a 50 win team. He had a great year, and filled the box scores night after night. That year his PER was 18.88. If the C's get that Posey, crack the champagne. In all likelihood that season was a mass aberration; and of course Glenn will never be confused for Hubie Brown.
All that said, what surprised me about the signing was that the C's shelled out about $3.5 million for Posey. I though we would be dealing strictly with veteran minimum contracts at this stage, like what was given to House and Pollard. That is because the C's were already in luxury tax land at about a $70 million dollar payroll, and now with Posey they go well above it. So, welcome to the big leagues, Wyc and fellow owners. Right now it looks like the payroll will be around $75 million, about seven or eight million dollars above the tax. Only the Knicks, Mavericks and Nuggets have higher payrolls.
So, in reality, Wyc and Co. decided that it was worth spending $7 million on James Posey for this upcoming year, because his salary is going to be matched dollar for dollar in luxury tax. This is pretty stunning. No one was saying we needed to get Posey, he is indeed a luxury, and one that will have to be paid for.
So yesterday's signing is not about Posey, it is about Wyc. Apparently he is trying to channel some Mark Cuban, someone he has always professed to admire. Personally, I feel a little crummy; I am a believer in the salary cap, the socialist in me can't turn a blind eye on such things. I heard Simmons speaking with Kerr just the other day on how much he hated the cap, and how parity in the league just meant less exceptional basketball, but I still find some virtue in it. With how much I rail on the Eastern Conference maybe I shouldn't. But the cap seems necessary to me, and the Celtics newfound extravagance might have deeper, darker meanings down the line. Insane free spending ruined baseball for me. This is a different situation all together, but one thing is certain - the Celtics are now big players in the game.
4 comments:
I wish we got Earl Boykins instead. Maybe we still will.
At least no one said anything about being crapped on by dudes...
First of all, to the commenter about Earl Boykins, be careful what you wish for. The guy is too short to see over his defender, so he dribbles for 15 seconds and then fires up a jump shot. He's kind of a jerk in the locker room too.
As for the point about the salary cap in the main post, I wonder if the cap is slowly going away. It seems like more and more teams are willing to step over it. Maybe it's too small, or maybe some markets are so strong that they can afford to pay tax. The best part is that every dollar this teams spend over the cap goes to the small market teams. So it all works out. Kinda.
I agree posey's problems look worse than poor utilization. The plus is that we don't need much offense from him, and if he never gets his outside shot back, it won't be too too bad. We need the defense and toughness in the full court.
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